The Christmas Spirit
I like the feel of the holiday season. Christmas was always a very big deal in my large, unruly family. The Christmas tree had to be acquired - generally by a short hike into the woods - right after Thanksgiving, and decorated to our family tradition formula. When you went to bed on Christmas Eve, the only presents under the tree were the ones from family members to one another. Santa came some time in the night, and by the time the first kid got up (which was about an hour after Mom and Dad had gone to bed) there was a small mountain of stuff. Dad had to have a cup of coffee before the festivities could begin, and he was the one who examined each package and handed it to its recipient.
My wife had a childhood with quite similar traditions, and we still sort of follow them now, in part to hand off to our son a tradition he can share with his future family.
So last Saturday we accomplished the initial task of the season - acquiring the tree. The "woods" we went to was one of the numerous Christmas tree farms in our area. The larger ones are a festive event in themselves, with petting zoos (baby goats, lambs and burros), hay rides and free hot cider.
This year we tromped through three farms before we found a tree that was acceptable to my son (the final arbiter). One of the things I like about doing this is that all the farms are swarming with families doing the same thing, laughing, kids racing between the trees, "What about this one, Dad?" Once again, our chosen tree was too tall, too wide and too difficult to cut down with the dull saw provided by the farm. In other words, it was perfect.
Per our tradition, we stopped at a local family-owned grocery store for candy canes, egg nog and fresh baked still hot French bread (which we ate in the car on the way home). We fastened the tree to its stand, wrestled it into the house, put an armload of Christmas CDs in the player and spent the rest of the evening drinking eggnog and decorating the tree.
Curious that there's an entire class of music that we would not even think to listen to for eleven months of the year, but for that twelfth month we listen to it non-stop. And it's always different versions of the same ten songs.
Anyway, I'm in the Christmas spirit now, so it's time to share some of it. Over the next few days, I'll post here a few adorable do-it-yourself Christmas cards. Just download, print and glue onto the front of a Hallmark card and send to your friends and family. Happy Holiday!
10:35:03 AM 
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